Birthdays
by Peace Ocean
Summary: The Birthdays Challenge on SilverwaterBombadil's Forum, by Waterfall13. A look at the B-days of the characters in Wild Kratts.


**Okay! We couldn't resist. We put this up before finishing the others' B-days! We just hope you like it!**

Zach sat alone in the large jet, twirling his finger around the rim of his glass. He would never admit it, but he was lonely. Despite the hundreds of Zach-bots he had, they weren't human. Currently they were bringing in black balloons. Usually it worked to cheer him up, but not today.

He sighed, brushing a hand through his smooth, jet black hair as he remembered how he had called Donita today.

"Donita Donata, what can I do for you?" she had answered uninterestedly, filing her finger nails. Her brown hair was pulled back, for once, and her yellow eyes flitted from the screen to her filing.

"Um, Donita… Hi. How are you?" He had smiled lamely, not really knowing how to talk to her.

She had looked at him, finally, and had given him a curious look, "I'm fine. Thank you. Now what do you want?"

Zach had sighed, scratching the back of his head. He wasn't sure how to put it.

"Um, today…Today is my birthday, and I was wondering-"

"Oh, is that all it is? I'll send you a gift, now if you don't mind, I have a fashion meeting in three minutes," and with that she had finished the call.

He sighed.

"I don't want a stupid gift," he had crossed his arms, frowning deeply.

Now he sat, a large black cake in front of him. Oh, how he wanted to just take a knife and destroy it! But he didn't, feeling too emotionally exhausted.

He had had good birthdays and he had had bad birthdays…

He mostly remembered the bad ones.

His ninth birthday, he had been excited. His dad was going to be there! Finally, he wouldn't just be sent off to some place with games and such that he didn't like, with children he didn't know. Of course there were the Kratt boys. He knew them pretty well, considering they were his cousins. But they always looked down on his inventions. He always involved a lot of time and effort into them, and everyone, even his cousins, whom he had thought his friends, had lifted their noses at them.

He sighed, content, as he flipped through a book about brains. They were so awesome! Just the right frequency and they were easily controlled.

His mom walked into the room, talking avidly into her huge cell phone. He smiled at her, hoping to get a response, but she walked right back out.

He shrugged, ignoring how much it hurt, not really feeling it anymore.

A horn sounded out. He looked out of the window. The school bus was here. He grinned.

He skipped out of the house, happily getting into the bus and sitting in his usual spot, across from the Kratt boys.

"Hi guys!" he waved at them. Them looked at him and shook their heads. He blinked, confused. Then he realized he had one of his inventions in his hands. A parrot was hooked up to a machine that make its flight and speech controllable. He sighed. Couldn't they understand? He stroked the parrot's head gently. This creature's brain was amazing. Couldn't they see that he adored the animals too?

His time in school seemed to fly by. Soon he skipped back into his house, to find it covered with bright colors, bright balloons, bright everything. He found himself a little overwhelmed by all the colors, but he was happy. His father was going to be there!

Soon the party started, but his dad hadn't come. Even those Kratt boys were there, but not his dad.

He sighed, toying with his new toys. All he could think about was how he could turn these things into cool new inventions. An hour later and people started leaving. Even his mother left. Aunt Ana placed a caring hand on his shoulder as he tried to hold in the tears. With a scream, he pushed her off. He wanted _his_ mother, not his cousins' mother. He ran to his room, crying.

He wasn't sure how long he was there, but he could feel the anger that was boiling up inside of him. It made his face turn red as he tried to keep from sobbing.

He heard a feeble knock on his door.

"Go away! I don't want to see anyone!"

He heard his door open. He sat up, in a fury. "I said-"

It was Chris. He gave Zach a worried look, which didn't seem to fit on his young face. Zach shook his head. "You wouldn't understand."

Chris climbed onto Zach's bed anyway. "I'm sorry."

Zach hugged the parrot to him. "You can't be. You weren't the one-"

Chris hugged him, wrapping his small arms around his cousin. He was a little scared, knowing Zach would hurt people in one of his furies. But Zach merely returned the gesture, wrapping his arms around his seven-year-old cousin. He started to cry again.

"Shh," Chris rubbed his back comfortingly, "It's okay."

Zach pushed away, "No, it's not! They don't care, they never did. No one does."

He hugged his legs to his chest.

"I care."

"No, you don't. You're just little, little kids love everything."

"I don't like getting whooped."

"That's not what I mean."

Chris was silent, fingering the hem of his shirt. Zach petted his parrot.

"I wish…" he trailed off, not knowing what he wanted.

Chris reached across and petted the parrot as well. "You know, they're nicer when they're not under mind control."

Zach screamed, pushing Chris off the bed. "Stop! Stop it with all that! Go away!"

Chris's eyes watered up, and he got up and ran out of the room.

"Why can't anyone understand?" Zach curled up on his bed, not understanding himself the flurry of emotions that were tormenting him.

Zach sighed, once again resisting the urge to destroy the cake. He still couldn't understand.

One of the Zach-bots came up to him, beeping worriedly.

"What?" he yelled. It beeped again, changing its head into a screen, which showed the outside of the jet.

He smiled, finally.

"Let them in."

The bot beeped, confused.

"Just let them in. Just this once though!"

After a few moments, he heard the sound of hushed whispers, and feet walking down the hallway. He turned.

Chris and Martin smiled at him, not a hint of any malice or doubt in their eyes.

He smiled back, weakly.

"Thanks, guys."

**Well, that's that chapter! Um, a review, maybe?**


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